Prevalence and correlates of anxiety and depression in frontline healthcare workers treating people with COVID-19 in Bangladesh

Abstract

Background: Healthcare workers (HCWs) who are in the frontline during the COVID-19 pandemic are often under significant pressures which may predispose them to mental ill-health. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of anxiety and depression among HCWs and factors correlated with mental problems during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh.Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted between July and August 2020. A self-reported online questionnaire was utilized to collect data. The survey included questions concerning socio-demographic, lifestyle, and work setting and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).Results: Data from 803 HCWs (50.7% male; mean age: 27.3 [SD=6.9]; age range: 18-58 years) were included in analyses. Prevalence estimates of anxiety and depression were, respectively, 69.5% and 39.5% for at least borderline abnormal, 41.2% and 15.7% for at least abnormal symptoms. Regression analyses with HADS-score as dependent variable revealed significant (p<0.05) associations with female sex, moderate and poor health status, irregular physical exercising, smoking, having had regrets about their profession because of the pandemic and many unexpected experiences, not updating on the latest COVID-19-related research, experiencing discrimination in the workplace, and facing social problems due to working in a lab or hospital.Conclusions: Symptoms of mental ill-health are prevalent among HCWs during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh. The findings suggest a need for monitoring and early interventions to help these individuals.

Correlates of Financial Concerns and Symptoms of Depression and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Impoverished Urban-dwelling Individuals in Bangladesh During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Face-to-face Interview Findings

“…The extent to which the findings might relate to longer sleep of poorer quality given crowded living situations or other factors warrants additional study. The present findings also linked smoking to depression, consistent with prior reports in Bangladesh (Islam et al, 2020e;Tasnim et al, 2020) and global findings from 48 low-and middle-income countries (Stubbs et al, 2018) and a systematic review (Fluharty et al, 2017).…”

Treatment, Persistent Symptoms, and Depression in People Infected with COVID-19 in Bangladesh

“…A pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire adapted from the literature [10] was used to collect data using the Google survey tool. The questionnaire was translated using the guidelines of back translation (e.g., Beaton et al (2000)) [35], as previously used in Bangladesh [25,36,37]. The questionnaire was translated into Bangla (participants' first language) and then translated back to English by experts with very good command of both the Bangla and English languages.…”

“…The total score was calculated by summing the raw scores of each item ranging from 0-27, with a higher score indicating greater severity of depression. The levels of depressive symptoms were classified into five groups according to their score as minimal (0-4), mild (5-9), moderate (10)(11)(12)(13)(14), moderately severe (15)(16)(17)(18)(19), and severe (20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27). In the present study, the PHQ-9 scale was found to have Cronbach's α of 0.86.…”

“…Pandemic issues such as spatial distancing, isolation, quarantine, and economic hardships may lead to or exacerbate depression, frustration, fear, grief, anger, shame, desperation, boredom, stress, and panic [ 6 , 24 , 25 , 26 ]. Depression is a relatively common mental health problem that many individuals will likely experience during and after the crisis [ 24 ].…”

“…Depression is characterized by sadness that may include tearfulness, loss of interest or pleasure, guilt or low self-worth, trouble sleeping, decreased or increased appetite, low energy, diminished sex drive, and poor concentration [ 29 ]. In Bangladesh, depression has been observed in different populations during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the general public (47.2%) [ 30 ], university students (62.9%) [ 26 ], medical students (49.9%) [ 31 ], and healthcare workers (39.5%) [ 25 ]. Previous studies have reported several factors that are associated with depression, including female sex, living in an urban area, reduced or no physical exercise, dissatisfaction with sleep, self-reported moderate/poor health status, smoking, the presence of COVID-19 symptoms, and fear of COVID-19 re-infection [ 25 , 26 , 30 , 32 , 33 ].…”